Students who have long relied on the break shuttles provided by the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to travel home for school breaks may have noticed a change in management since last year.
Many students use school shuttles as a means of coming home for breaks. Last year, DPS decided to hire a shuttle company called Break Shuttle to coordinate transportation to popular shuttle stops. The change in management of the shuttles came as a result of their growing popularity among students.
“We have had a lot of students using the break shuttle- so much that we over-booked many stops, that some students had to buy tickets at Gettysburg,” said Director of Transportation Alyssa Gill.
Gill cited shuttles to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, New York City and New England as those that are handled by Break Shuttle. Instead of using buses that make multiple trips between the college and the stations, Break Shuttle is now using large buses instead to transport everyone at once.
Gettysburg College employed the services of Break Shuttle to coordinate transportation for their students. Seeing that many students using the Gettysburg shuttles were from Dickinson, Break Shuttle advertised its services to Dickinson. One advantage of the new partnership is that it is easier to buy shuttle tickets: all ticket sales are handled on the Break Shuttle website. However, there are some problems with the new service. One such difficulty has been the ability of DPS to accommodate departure times with student class schedules.
“We do have problems because Dickinson is not directly running these shuttles. We are trying to work out these problems and hope to make them better,” said Gill. Students agree that the arrangement is not yet seamless, but remain thankful to have the shuttles as a means to get home for breaks.
“Because it is so new, there have been some problems, but it is nice to know that there is something that can make my commute easier,” said Rachel Williams ’16. Over winter break, students who use the shuttles should look for communications from DPS. The department will send out a survey for concerns students have regarding the shuttles. “We want to hear feedback from the students so we can improve their journey home,” stated Gill.
